Shimura Blogging, part 2: Koi-iji/Love Glutton

Shimura posting continues, this time with Koi-iji (Love Glutton).

Koi-iji (Love Glutton), (2014-2018) - While listlessly refreshing Shimura's Mangadex page, I saw this series had been scanslated and was finished and decided to treat myself. I'm glad I did! Koi-iji is Shimura writing in a comic mode. It's a self-indulgent, fun, and speedy series that at once returns Shimura to a familiar mode romantic comedy feat. complicated romantic entanglements. Shimura comments that she put out chapters for this series really fast, so clearly, something about themes and characters really spoke to her.

Our protagonist is Ohara Mame, a 30 year old woman who's been in love with her neighbor, Akai Souta, age 35, for the last twenty years (?!?!). Souta owns a cafe next to the Ohara's bathhouse. His wife, Haruko, has recently died after a long illness; he has a ten year old daughter, Yu, who's very attached to Mame; his first love is Mame's older sister, Yume. Did I mention that Mame's confessed her feelings to Souta at least three times and was rejected each time? Or that, in chapter one, Mame confesses AGAIN and Souta tells Mame bluntly that he was hoping Shun or someone else would marry Mame because, he says, "In the back of my mind, I always thought, 'It doesn't have to be me.'" Ouch!!!? Or that Souta has a little brother, Shun, whose first love was Mame? Or that dead wife, Haruko, was Yume's best friend? And, and, and, and—and! And then!

( 2800 words of Shimura posting........ )